GeoComply Announces Acquisition of Compliance Solutions Provider OneComply
The Canadian gaming industry saw a major acquisition recently. GeoComply, a leading geolocation, fraud, and risk solutions provider in the online gaming sector, announced the acquisition of OneComply, which helps companies operating in regulated markets to manage their personal and corporate licensing obligations. This is a major win for safe online casinos in Canada.
OneComply now gives GeoComply an additional gaming option that helps online gaming companies streamline the compliance process in various jurisdictions. Both companies are based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and service companies around the world.
“From our first interactions with OneComply, we have been excited about the opportunity to welcome them into the GeoComply family, and it gives me great pleasure to have completed that process,” GeoComply co-founder and CEO Anna Sainsbury said in announcing the deal on May 8.
A Complete Online Gaming Solution
The combination of the two companies may seem like a natural marriage. GeoComply offers technology that helps online gaming platforms determine if a player is actually located in a legal jurisdiction. Companies around the world, including in the U.S. and Canada, now make use of GeoComply technology.
OneComply allows these same companies to more easily navigate the gaming regulatory landscape. Operators, suppliers, and others can use the platform’s centralized licensing solution to make the compliance processes simpler and reduce the risk of non-compliance.
“By using the OneComply platform, organizations can eliminate complexity and automate licensing compliance, saving them valuable time and resources,” the company notes. “Licensing organizations and key individuals is necessary but can be a painful process for any entity working in regulated industries such as gaming or fintech. As an existing OneComply customer, we know just how much OneComply eases that pain, not just for us but also for the regulators administering the process.”
The two can now be offered in tandem and become a key system for online gaming companies to meet various gaming regulations including geo-compliance.
“Adding their licensing platform and expertise to our portfolio of solutions will materially and cost-effectively help our existing and new customers in the gaming and other regulated industries achieve and maintain a new gold standard in compliance and risk services,” Sainsbury said. “Together, we will have unparalleled capabilities to support the mission-critical compliance needs of the gaming industry, including AML (anti-money laundering),, KYC (know your customer), licensing, geolocation, sanctions compliance, and fraud prevention technology.”
A Growing Tech Firm
The GeoComply company is quite a success story in a segment of the gaming industry many players and business insiders may not think of too often. At a time when online gaming continues to grow, compliance is a key part of the industry and GeoComply certainly fills a niche in the market.
Sainsbury and her husband David Briggs founded the company in 2011 after seeing a need for geolocation. Both worked in the industry with Briggs at one time helping British gambling brand Ladbrokes grow its online gaming arm. Sainsbury worked as a consultant in the gaming industry.
As online gaming took off in the U.S., the couple believed geo-compliance would be a bigger issue and worked to solve the problem of making sure bettors were indeed located in the province or state they said they were playing in. With sports betting surging across the country, that became even more important.
“GeoComply scrutinizes nearly every online bet on sports to determine whether the wager is happening in a state where it’s legal,” the Wall Street Journal noted. “Over the past five years, the company has signed on DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars and other betting operators as customers as online gambling rapidly expanded across the U.S.”
The company uses Wi-Fi signals, GPS, cell-tower signals and other data to determine that a bettor is located in a legal, regulated market. Almost no online gaming operator can now operate without GeoComply’s services, the Journal adds.
The company more than 100 million compliance checks were conducted on the service during Super Bowl weekend and scrutinizes 10 billion transactions each year, according to the company. That doesn’t mean the company doesn’t have challenges. The company’s geocompliance patent has been challenged and with such a large market, it seems possible that other tech firms might eventually enter the space.
GeoComply now has 650 employees and is believed to be worth more than $1 billion with an IPO possible in the coming two years. OneComply brings decades of experience in the highly-regulated gaming industry and becomes a critical addition for Geo.
OneComply integrates several technologies, including a secure data repository, workflow management, visual dashboards, and license application automation, into a single platform designed specifically for the gaming industry. As more operators look to stay in compliance with various provincial and state gaming laws, GeoComply can now offer a complete one-stop shop solution. Details on the purchase price were not available.
